Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I already asked that question and I did not see any evidence or hear about any big idea that has come to fruition. Meanwhile the surplus is building.

I will touch briefly on precarious employment in the university sector. More than one third of staff are on temporary or casual contracts. Two thirds of the 6,000 workers are women. One of them visited my constituency clinic this month. It was a person who has a number of degrees and a doctorate, who receives a salary of €9,500 and does not get maternity leave, holiday pay or sick pay. This is replicated across the board. Some people do not even have a written contract; they have a verbal contract. This was flagged with the Department at a meeting of this committee a year ago. The Department committed to carrying out research. Will the Department give an update on that research and on what has been done to address the issue since then?